


Dot

by kitty_pryde_bi_pride



Series: Umbrella Academy Vignettes [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26218789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_pryde_bi_pride/pseuds/kitty_pryde_bi_pride
Summary: Dot firmly believes that the most important thing a person could do was showing kindness to everyone in their path.
Series: Umbrella Academy Vignettes [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876861
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Dot

Dot firmly believes that the most important thing a person could do was showing kindness to everyone in their path.

It was something her mother had ingrained in her from an early age, and it was a simple principle- kind of like the Golden Rule, treating others as you’d want to be treated, but it went even further than that. It wasn’t some passive catch-phrase, it was a way to live for her life.

Some days she felt exhausted, drained, and it would’ve been easy for her to decide that it would be golden to ignore others in turn- everyone got tired sometimes. Things like this were easy to excuse, if she let herself.

But her mother had always wanted her to be vigilant. 

The two of them had some core differences – her mother was much more empathic than Dot had ever been, she herself had always understood science and math more than people – but this rule was an easy bridge between them.

On those days when Dot didn’t have the energy for kindness, her mother had told her to think about it analytically: she didn’t lose anything but a few seconds, a hint of energy, when she said or did something kind, but what the other person gained was exponentially higher.

The input was substantially lower than the output, and therefore kindness made sense to her.

She continues to live by this principle when the Commission orphaned her – took her mother away, both her parents gone before she could even say goodbye, but she didn’t like to think about any of that – because she believes that kindness could help everyone else there, in that place where tragic backstories seemed the norm and stiff exteriors were viewed as an essential armor.

It was easy to see that people around her thought her dumb and oblivious, excessively cheery, but that didn’t bother her- not everyone knew how powerful kindness could be. It felt like that was her kind act, when others were cruel to her and she responded with peace.

Everyone in the Commission seemed to be so angry, too, especially the agents; Hazel and Cha-Cha always burst into the office, ignoring the analysts and non-field agents working there in favor of getting their next assignment, the Handler was needlessly cruel and destructive when she entered into a mood, Number Five was shattered and impossibly awkward when he tried to talk to others.

It made sense- she never went into the field, but she read their reports. They experienced horrors, committed most of those unspeakably violent acts, then had to come back and deal with desk jockeys who would send them on another mission without ever understanding what it was like.

And she knew what was in their files, too. She knew about the Handler’s sordid history and secret daughter, Hazel and Cha-Cha’s mysterious backstories, Number Five’s abuse and decades long isolation immediately followed by training to kill. Dot understood the people in the Commission better than they probably understood themselves.

And that’s why she continued to be kind, despite watching them spout abusive words to her and her colleagues, ignoring and belittling her and her friends without pause- because she knew who they were, and what they were running from.

Everybody, in some way or another, was running from something- she didn’t think there was a person on earth who didn’t have something they were trying to escape. Acts of kindness, selfless displays of caring and love with nothing in return were absolutely essential to showing people they could be safe- it was a way to say, you can rest now.

Dot was running from something too. She wished someone would be kind to her.

**Author's Note:**

> i'll probably be posting things once a week starting now- with school starting, i've been getting pretty busy and am running out of time for hobbies! hopefully i'll be able to keep up with weekly updates lol
> 
> enjoy, feel free to leave comments and kudos- it means a lot! 
> 
> my tumblr is kittypryde-bipride if you're interested in checking it out
> 
> hope everyone is having a great day :)


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